I wasn't really sure what to expect but I just got a new EC2 and I was really surprised how quickly I got a nice tone out of the head. It really was faster to get it in tune and more importantly it has stayed in tune so far.

I wasn't really sure what to expect but I just got a new EC2 and I was really surprised how quickly I got a nice tone out of the head. It really was faster to get it in tune and more importantly it has stayed in tune so far.

I'm hard to impress, but I am right now. Nice job Evans!

Thanks! This is true testament to what Level 360 offers in combination with our quality and wide variety of options. Not just a marketing gimmick. Cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midnite Zephyr

I put Evans Level 360 resonant heads on my toms and used an EQ3 for my front bass drum head. Remo's are on all my batter heads. My snare still has the factory reso.

I've never been happier with the sound of my drums.

Just wait until you get Evans heads with Level 360 on your batters- golden drum sounds!

Thanks! This is true testament to what Level 360 offers in combination with our quality and wide variety of options. Not just a marketing gimmick. Cheers!

Just wait until you get Evans heads with Level 360 on your batters- golden drum sounds!

I bet. I've used EC2's in the past. We use the EC2 heads on the Starclassic set at the studio. They sound great. I'll try some G2 heads on my Rockstar kit next time in place of the Emperors, but I do like my snare batter Amb. Although I do prefer the HD Dry on my old Gretsch snare. :)

I have been use G2's for live performances for a while. What else would you recommend in the lineup as a good choice?

Lots of great options to choose from. Personally, I like the response of a balanced set- G1 (10mil) on my high tom, G12 (12mil) on my mid tom, G14 (14mil) on my floor tom. It's the perfect balanced of attack, tone, and sustain for each individual drum- a very dynamic setup!

I also really dig EC2S clears for more controlled rock sounds. When depth of tone is the primary focus, Black Chromes are my go-to choice (seriously deep!).

Thanks man! I have been using all Evans heads for a while now. You guys even sent me some for military donations when I was overseas. Would you recommend that setup also with the reso heads? I use all G1 clears on the reso side for toms; might actually help the drum resonate better with the same heads top and bottom.

All my gigs here lately I get a TON of compliments on my drums. I let them know my little secret....although its on my bass drum reso head. I might want to try the coated over coated approach like Florian Alexandru-Zorn and Benny Greb.

I had someone at Evans send me a free set of the new 360 heads to try as I had expressed distaste at the durability of their old coating compared to Aquarians (unbeatable) coating quality - but still better than the embarrasing Remo excuse!

I've had the heads on my garage 'practice' kit for a few weeks now and I must hand it to them...the coating is a lot better than before. Compared to before, the wear is minimal, and the sound seems to have warmed up considerably (G2 by the way) on the toms. Initial tuning seems to hold a little better too. I used to have to do some serious stretching and resting to get them to settle before, but it took just a little tweaking each time I sat down for the first few times to get them sat for good. I like the sound so they'll stay on until they wear out for sure.

I wouldn't say it's converted me away from Aquarian but I would certainly not worry now if I had to choose something else out of necessity/availability. I have no option but to buy mail-order for Aquarian in my area so I have to be prepared but most stores here are carrying the 360s now so it's definitely my #2 choice for sure.

I wouldn't say it's converted me away from Aquarian but I would certainly not worry now if I had to choose something else out of necessity/availability. I have no option but to buy mail-order for Aquarian in my area so I have to be prepared but most stores here are carrying the 360s now so it's definitely my #2 choice for sure.

All great manufacturing companies in all walks of life really stress to be #2. ;)

A little off topic here but how do you measure #1? Market share? Total revenue? With Evans quality and consistency it could be argued that Evans already is #1 but sound is so subjective. How is that measured?

A little off topic here but how do you measure #1? Market share? Total revenue? With Evans quality and consistency it could be argued that Evans already is #1 but sound is so subjective. How is that measured?

Thanks

I like leaving it sort of vague- it means we're always striving to get better. I already think that we make the best heads available for the widest array of sounds. I'll continue to make sure that we offer the best customer support as well.

MAN! these heads were killin. not sure if i'd use them 100% for jazz but let me tell you, such a clear, open, FULL and focused sound.. extremely focused but not small sounding or feeling. not extremely loud also but they had such a presence from behind the kit and even at the back of the room. think of a remo emperor with less overtones and even more full tone.. so great

Hey! I put together a review of 6 of the level 360 snare heads recently. Each head is placed back to back, 4 bars of each so you can hear exactly how they compare. I think level 360 is a good development and about time a manufacturer pushed the envelope. Not quite as much a revolution as they express maybe?

When depth of tone is the primary focus, Black Chromes are my go-to choice (seriously deep!).

Cheers!

Do you have any coated heads with the same tonal qualities as the Black Chrome? I like the idea of the black chrome heads and have read great reviews.....................just wouldn't look very good on my champagne sparkle kit.

We're always developing new things but have no intention of duplicating pre-existing products. I can't give much more detail than that at this time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by longgun

Do you have any coated heads with the same tonal qualities as the Black Chrome? I like the idea of the black chrome heads and have read great reviews.....................just wouldn't look very good on my champagne sparkle kit.

Unfortunately we don't. The next closest option would be either the Onyx heads (frosted coating over white) then frosted EC2S, though these aren't nearly as deep in sound as the Black Chromes.

So much talk... Sure, the new collar is nice. But the new clear G2 that I bought has too much material on one side so to speak, so that specific part of the drum head requires ridiculous tension to even touch the bearing edge properly. Obviously it sounds like shit, it just can't be tuned. The drum head itself is perfectly round, so I don't think it's damaged from handling.

Ordered it online from Thomann, so I can't really go back to the store. I'm not going to demand them to send me another head either, since it's probably not their fault. Does Evans ship out refunds world wide?

So much talk... Sure, the new collar is nice. But the new clear G2 that I bought has too much material on one side so to speak, so that specific part of the drum head requires ridiculous tension to even touch the bearing edge properly. Obviously it sounds like shit, it just can't be tuned. The drum head itself is perfectly round, so I don't think it's damaged from handling.

Ordered it online from Thomann, so I can't really go back to the store. I'm not going to demand them to send me another head either, since it's probably not their fault. Does Evans ship out refunds world wide?

Drop me an email at Ben.smith@daddario.com and I'll make sure that we get you a replacement through our distributor.

These heads have tempted me to try them out for my next set of tom heads. I've been playing Aquarian for years (understandable, since in my opinion, they have an unbeatable sound, and have had something like this '360' thing for a loooong time! :). I've been turned off Remo for good after too many dud heads and after hearing a Classic Clear and Ambassador on the same drum.

The store I usually buy heads from doesn't do Evans though, so I might be out of luck unless someone else can offer me a better price (and that includes the cost of petrol :). I first heard the good old G2/G1 combo several years ago and the sound always stuck in my head because it was so nice, along with a few different combinations of bass drum heads. I even used a heated up spike to poke holes around the outside of a Remo Ambassador many years ago to emulate the dry snare head I'd seen someone using :).

Sorry, I'm waffling a bit! Hopefully I'll get a chance to listen to these soon!

It's a small, local store in NSW, Australia. The other store I tend to frequent is the Drum Shop at Newcastle, and I'm pretty sure they stock Evans, but that one is a much further drive for me so that's where the cost of petrol or shipping comes into play :) Most of my purchases have been cymbals from the Newcastle store as they are a Paiste distributor.

I'm impressed overall! You don't have to "break them in" and seat them like other brands. You just stick them on and tune them. I still give them a little push while tuning, the re-tune and BAM... great tone!

Still, Evans offers nothing as rich-sounding as the Remo Renaissance heads. Frankly, I just take Remos (or old Evans) and go around the rim and stretch around the collar and it pretty much does what the 360 process does. "Perfectly round and level" doesn't really matter if your drums aren't perfectly level. ALL triple-flanged hoops have imperfect level and even a lot of die cast hoops aren't perfectly level, so basically you take a "perfectly level" head and bend it to fit your hoops. Not that I'm saying it's a gimmick, I just don't consider it a "game-changer" as they say.

I'm impressed overall! You don't have to "break them in" and seat them like other brands. You just stick them on and tune them. I still give them a little push while tuning, the re-tune and BAM... great tone!

Still, Evans offers nothing as rich-sounding as the Remo Renaissance heads. Frankly, I just take Remos (or old Evans) and go around the rim and stretch around the collar and it pretty much does what the 360 process does. "Perfectly round and level" doesn't really matter if your drums aren't perfectly level. ALL triple-flanged hoops have imperfect level and even a lot of die cast hoops aren't perfectly level, so basically you take a "perfectly level" head and bend it to fit your hoops. Not that I'm saying it's a gimmick, I just don't consider it a "game-changer" as they say.

Glad to hear that your experience with them has been great!

Have you tried our J1 Etched heads? That's what I'd put up against the Renaissance for the sake of comparison.

With regards to the consideration of Level 360 as a "game-changer," I'm certainly not going to try and change your mind, because that's not the point. Plenty of people do think it's changing the game (many of them top level artists that have been and while continue switching to Evans as a result).

At the end of the day, our Level 360 collar provides the most accommodating fit across the board. It works better with out-of-round drums because of the increased surface area on the playing surface. It accommodates various diameters of drums (and there's quite a bit of variance out there!) as well as the variety of bearing edge cuts. It's no less accommodating than our old collar shape, so there's really nothing to lose.

Again, glad to that you experienced the ease of tuning and quality of tone. Cheers!

From the review:
Sure enough, the heads sounded and felt great at both high and low tunings, but after some experimentation, one thing did jump out at me. I cranked the coated G1s up nice and high, and they gave me a pretty remarkable sweetness that I hadn’t heard from these drums before. When I tried to get them back down low, however, I couldn’t really get my 14" floor tom to sound like it had before. There was a very strange, overtone-laden decay that just wouldn’t go away no matter what I tried.

Upon further inspection, I could see that a part of the collar was no longer in contact with the bearing edge. Now, this only happened on the floor tom – and only this floor tom – but when I looked closer, it seemed like the playing surface of the head may have in fact been a little bit too large for the shell. I removed the rim and tried to reposition the head, and got the same result. Even so, it still tuned well enough, and it sounded fine despite the issue. I couldn’t replicate the problem with a different drum or a different head, so I have to assume it was simply some inconsistency between the two.

Have you tried our J1 Etched heads? That's what I'd put up against the Renaissance for the sake of comparison.

Well, the problem is, they don't come in the variety of weights that the Remos do. You get Diplomats, Ambassadors and Emperors which I've used all of on various kits. Generally, I like the Ambassadors on both sides of the rack toms and an Emperor/Diplomat combo for Floor toms. Now the EC series does feature the etched surface and the EC reverse dot is an AMAZING snare head, if you're looking for a controlled response that doesn't kill the overtones but controls them. I'm still enjoying my Evans heads for now, but I might have to get me some Renaissance heads when I go back into the studio. When I used them on my old Rockstar DX kit, it gave them a much more "expensive" and rich sound that no other heads could do. I know that Rockstars are not really supposed to sound "rich" but that's what I got from them.

Until I land an endorsement deal (if that ever happens), I'll keep experimenting. :)

Now the EC series does feature the etched surface and the EC reverse dot is an AMAZING snare head, if you're looking for a controlled response that doesn't kill the overtones but controls them.

Just to clarify- the coated versions of the EC heads are actually frost coated, not etched. The J1 etched heads are the only heads on the market that go through a media-blasting process to achieve the unique tonal and textural characteristics.

I'm giving the Level 360's a try for my new old Acrolite. I'm putting a coated G1 PC reverse dot over a Hazy 300. Last time I tried an Aquarian texture coated reverse dot on my Pork Pie. It's OK. Those Aquarian heads take a little time to get stretched out and sounding good. I'm hoping this Evans combo will blow me away because I'm doing some recording tomorrow. I'll have my review tomorrow...

Add: Well, I spent a little time getting the new heads on. The Hazy 300 turned out to be a Clear 300. No biggie. That head went on easily and seated very quickly. The batter head took a little adjusting to get it to sit evenly on the bearing edge. It tuned up very easy though, and it took no time to tune it up to where I liked it. The HD Dry that I put on my Gretsch snare awhile back went on really easy too, which was surprising considering what a problem I have putting Ambassadors on that drum because it's a little bit out of round. I had to mess around with the tuning on that Aquarian head I recently put on my Pork Pie for quite awhile before I got it the way I like it. I'm going to try this Power Center Reverse Dot on the Pork Pie next time. I have nothing against the good old Ambassador, but I need more durability in the center of the head and this Evans head sounds good and just tuned right up. Nice heads, Evans.

Got back from testing out my Black Chromes over Resonant Blacks this weekend.

I love this head combination.

I might have to try these I've heard a ton of people rave about this combo. I haven't tried them yet because I didn't think they'd look good on my old kit but they'd prob look good on my new Pewter Sparkle kit.

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